


Taste

by PresidentGuppy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2013-10-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 13:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1019320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PresidentGuppy/pseuds/PresidentGuppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Levi,” he says sharply.<br/>	You realize, slowly, that you had fallen asleep again, your head on his chest the only thing keeping you from falling to the floor.<br/>	You jerk back, startled, and meet his exasperated gaze.<br/>	“When was the last time you slept?” He asks. You wished his eyes would stop burning holes in your head. His constant trying to figure you out has you worn thin.<br/>	You shrug carelessly. It was a week, you think, when you had a full night’s rest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taste

**Author's Note:**

> Shrugs because why not.
> 
> I was thinking about making a small series of one shots about the daily life of Levi. If you think this is a good idea please tell me, because otherwise I won't be very motivated, heh.

Erwin was speaking. You could tell, because his mouth was moving and he was looking at you with his usual intense gaze. You aren’t sure what he is saying, however, because you can’t pay attention.

You remember working, mountains of paperwork and running ink. Endless streams of coffee and caffeinated tea that burned your tongue until you couldn’t taste the lifeforce you were drinking. After plowing through the paper mounds with determination and liquid energy alone you realized it was morning and breakfast had long since passed. You arrived late to the meeting with haphazard clothes and a growing panic, wheezing long gasps and fighting nausea.

During the long lecture you struggled to stay awake and take coherent notes. Your limbs felt so heavy you could barely hold your pen, your handwriting usually so neat now wide and interconnected. You nearly fell out of your chair a good couple of times in your lapse of attention, glaring viciously through tired eyes at the wealthy aristocrat who droned on and on about where funding should go and why. (The Survey Corps were widely ignored, of course.)

The scraping of chairs moving back brought to your attention the end of the meeting, and you realized you had dozed through the last part and had drooled a bit on the hand propping up your head. You wipe it irritably on your handkerchief and listen to the footsteps approaching you, realizing much later than usual who it was.

Erwin was speaking, to you.

“ _Levi_ ,” he says sharply.

You realize, slowly, that you had fallen asleep again, your head on his chest the only thing keeping you from falling to the floor.

You jerk back, startled, and meet his exasperated gaze.

“When was the last time you slept?” He asks. You wished his eyes would stop burning holes in your head. His constant trying to figure you out has you worn thin.

You shrug carelessly. It was a week, you think, when you had a full night’s rest. You mumble that to appease him, because he was starting to get the look which tells a hundred laps are on the way.

A heavy hand rests on your shoulder, and his fatherly concern makes you laugh. You have no father, not a real one. Not for a very long time.

You wonder if he’s older than you. You ask him, your voice sounding slurred to your ringing ears.

The abrupt sensation of being lifted and thrown over a wide shoulder makes you gag.

You thump a weak fist against Erwins back, futile and tired. He’s saying something but over your noises of indignation you can’t make out what it is.

You know how to walk, Erwin. You can take yourself to lunch. You don’t need a ride to lunch. You hear that, Erwin? Don’t need you Erwin, not you or your shit father schtick. Stupid Erwin. Stupid dumb shitface Erwin.

Eventually you just slump, and he grunts under your dead weight. He mumbles something irritably and you make noises that sound just as bad, just before you doze off again.

When you wake up again Eren is there, looking worried.

“Where is Erwin?” you slur, puzzled. He was just there, wasn’t he? In the meeting. He was talking to you.

Eren’s worried expression gets deeper.

“Captain, are you all right? Commander Erwin said you had passed out during the conference, and when I asked why he just sort of laughed, so-”

“Shut up, already,” you say, just because you can.

He does so with a flinch.

“Why am I in the basement,” you ask, because you really were in the basement. The cellar, the dungeon, Eren’s holdings.

The air was cold but you were buried in a good amount of blankets and sheets, so you decide not to complain.

You start complaining when you realized they smelled like dirt, sweat, and Eren.

“Sorry,” Eren is panicking, trying to keep you from moving to a suitably cleaner location. “Commander said to keep you here to rest. You can’t leave! He, uh, has the keys.”

You stare at him, then at the closed, sealed, cell door.

Eren apologises profusely at your rapidly darkening expression. You suppose you should have known Erwin would pull a stunt like this, leaving you here.

As it turns out, Eren seemed to be the one playing babysitter today, rather than the other way around.

You marvel at the chains locked around your wrists, keeping you from strangling him.

“He left some tea,” said titan shifter squeaked, holding up the offending steaming pot.

You notice it’s your favourite; polished iron with winged decals.

It’s Chai; you can tell by the sharp scent and overly sweet taste. You are satisfied for the moment, and the warmth filling your insides is making you tired all over again. You can feel the strain between your eyes lessen.

“Say, uh, Captain…?”

You grunt in response.

“Are you sick?”

Your cup meets its saucer, a bit rougher than intended.

“No,” you glare at him tersely. “I haven’t slept in a long while is all.” You spin the cup absently, staring at the door.

“‘Nothing to make a big deal out of,” you continue grouchily.

Eren frowns at you, as if he’s trying to make sense of your words. You suppose he can’t, since he’s a kid who didn’t have your insomniatic tendencies.

“I understand!” Eren says indignantly. You realize you had said your thoughts aloud, for the upteenth time. “What, you don’t think I lose sleep over my problems?”

You eye him interestedly. He hadn’t snapped at you before.

Turning red in the face he apologizes, realizing what he had done.

“No, go on,” You drone, head tilted. “Tell me.”

He hesitates, eyes you mistrustingly.

He tells you.

You learn that he was a doctor’s son, and had lived in one of the town’s bordering wall Maria. It had been the first to go down, and he had lost his mother and had never seen his father again.

“Must’ve been nice,” You say in what you hope was a pleasant tone of voice. “Having parents.”

“Yeah…” He says. He processes what you had said and abruptly apologizes again, fearful of hurting your long dead feelings. You wave him on and he continues, about the famine, joining the army, training to achieve his dream of going outside the walls.

“I want to see the ocean,” He is bursting with excitement. “Have you ever seen it? Armin says it’s like a puddle, but it goes on forever, and it’s full of salt!”

You blink at him owlishly. “...On an expedition south,” You begin, “I was leading exploration past the mountains. The air was...humid, and smelled heavily of salt. Perhaps that is was you’re looking for.”

His eyes are wide and bright. “Did you see it?” He is breathless.

“Yes,” you lie through your teeth at him. _Yes, it exists. Yes, it’s definitely not where a massive colony of Titans live. No, you didn’t lose everyone in your squad where you tried to get to it._

“What was it like?” He is so, so eager. You don’t have the heart to tell him there’s nothing out there but ruins of a long dead civilization that used to be yours.

You try to work your jaw. “...Massive, and salty.” You flinch at your wavery response but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“Let’s go see it together!”

You blame your weary heart on your automatic agreement.

 

You’re asleep.

Petra is there, excited about something. She’s laughing and pulling you along the stone streets you grew up in.

They’re as dirty as you remember.

You try to pull away, consumed with the need to clean. There is something very wrong, here.

Your feet are wet, and suddenly there is water as far as the eye can see.

Ripples spread as a black mound comes out of the water. You realize, too late, that it’s a titan, Eren’s titan, and he is there staring down at you with bright eyes.

You aren’t afraid.

You scowl up at him, tell him he’s not allowed to be in titan form without telling you first. He sort of smiles at you with his teeth and leans down to see you clearly.

You kick water on his face, childishly. The scent of salt fills your nostrils, overwhelming, and you sneeze.

Titan Eren laughs at you, so you kick his nose.

He licks you in retaliation.

You’re horrified. Saliva makes your hair stand up in odd ways and soaks your uniform. It’s all over your face, disgusting and wet.

His tongue is rough.

“ _Ugh_ ,” you shudder in heartfelt disgust.

You spend the rest of the dream walking, wandering around, trying to peer into the depths of colour below. Eren follows you, sometimes nudging you along, sometimes looking in like you do.

 

Your Captain is having a bad dream.

You’re not sure when he became your Captain, but he did and now he is so you don’t think about it too much.

Out of all Levi’s special unit, he was the only one who trusted you. Or at least, that’s what you thought. You’re not entirely sure. Levi is an enigma to most.

Your lack of a filter gave you plenty of trouble, but this time it wasn’t so. Responding angrily to Levi’s assumption, you expected a boot to the face.

Levi continued to surprise you.

You wonder if he was actually too tired to care when you were talking to tell you to stop, but you couldn’t help yourself. This man was a hero, and he wanted to listen to you, that annoying kid he was saddled with all that time ago.

You’re accident prone and reckless but he didn’t seem to mind it too much. He hadn’t minded teaching you to read or how to properly clean, although you were pretty neglectful on the latter.

His patience surprises you, although he doesn’t seem the type to be patient.

So you want to be patient in return.

You’re not sure how to get rid of nightmares.

You try to remember what your mother said about this sort of thing, something about a song and light.

But you couldn’t sing well and it was dark down here in the dungeon, so you scrap it and try to reassure the sleeping form that yes, you were here and you would protect him.

You didn’t expect the unhappy reply, but it hit you in like a door to the face.

Could it be that Levi, maybe, unconsciously, hates you? That sick expression says yes.

You feel your heart hurt in your chest, and feel miserable.

“ _Ugh_ ,” he had said fitfully.

You wonder what it meant. You hope your assumptions weren’t right, you don’t think you could bare more hate than you’ve already had sent your way.

Erwin checks in every couple of hours, seeing your boredom and giving you books to read. You make sure to thank him for his kindness.

You wonder what Levi’s relationship is with Erwin. You think, from the way that they are familiar with each other, that they may be friends of some sort.

You ponder this while staring at the words on the page. You think it’s a fairytale, but you can’t focus on it long enough to parse the words. It still takes you a long while to read.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Eren.”

Startled, you snap to attention. Levi was awake and watching you.

“Oh, uh, yeah…” You manage a weak smile.

_Ugh_.

You sigh.

Levi eyes you oddly. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Nothing!” you say defensively, shoulders hunched. You hide behind your book, trying to ignore his burning glare.

“That book is shit,” he says crossly. He snatches it out of your hands. Without thinking you snatch it back and sneer at him.

“How would you know?” you blurt, “you didn’t start reading until you a _couple of years ago._ ”

He’s frozen, slack jawed with disbelief.

You suck in a breath, shocked.

“I-I’m so…I didn’t mean…!”

His jaw snaps shut and he snarls at you, eyes in slits, radiating venom.

You feel like the absolute worst person in the world.

You don’t raise a hand to defend yourself when Levi lunges at you, knocking the both of you to the ground.

“You fucking _pig_ ,” He’s hissing, gripping your head in his hands, squeezing as if to crush your skull. You can see the hurt in his eyes and feel awful, because he had told that only to you. Only to comfort you about the fact that you hadn’t known how to read before he fucking taught you how.

You’ve never regretted anything so much in your entire life.

You hope he kills you, because you’re pretty sure you’ve just ruined him.

He doesn’t.

All at once his face falls smooth and he lets go.

You yelp when your head cracks on the floor. Peering up at him fearfully, you wonder if you could ever possibly be forgiven, because his expression leaves no impression.

His hands are on either side of your head. He leans down and stares into your eyes and you are suddenly very unsure of yourself.

“C-Captain, I,” You swallow, throat dry. You can smell his faint perfume.

He leans down and licks your face.

You’re frozen in shock. His tongue makes a trail from the side of your mouth, past your nose and between your eyes to the crown of your head, slick and wet.

You can feel your face burning terribly. You’re spluttering, choking and gasping, not knowing how to react.

Your Captain just _licked_ you.

You don’t know what to feel about this.

Staring up at him in shock, you see his expression twist into something like a scowl.

“You taste terrible,” he says bluntly, “take a fucking bath for once, you slow-ass pig.”

You think he’s insane.

  
  
  
  



End file.
